There’s plenty of Rangers fans out there who feel that the club failed to kick on post-55, including former chairman Dave King.
The South Africa-based businessman stepped down from his role in charge of Rangers just over four years ago.
Rangers would go on lift 55 the following year but despite that, Dave King reckons the club went backwards under the stewardship of Douglas Park and Stewart Robertson.
Rangers’ biggest individual shareholder – via his company New Oasis Asset Limited – King has been out talking in the Rangers Review this week about that downturn after winning a first title in ten years.
Dave King on Douglas Park’s Rangers reign
Dave King is clear that he “didn’t like” the direction the club was heading under its previous leadership, directly naming Park and Robertson.
It’s not the first time the ex-Rangers chairman has gone public with his criticisms of the Park-led regime, even calling for his fellow Rangers shareholder to go in 2022.
“When I was providing the business plan and driving the fortunes, I knew what was happening regarding the funding,” said King. “That level of disconnect, I guess, makes me slightly more nervous.
“That was also partly at the stage where I felt the club was taking completely the wrong direction and I still felt that I knew enough about it where I felt I had a greater obligation or need to try and influence, if you want to put it that way, from the outside.
“I didn’t like the direction that it was taking under Douglas and Stewart (Robertson) at that time, I felt that we had not only stood still following 55 but instead of kicking on as I felt we would do, I believed that we actually had gone backwards.
“We had managed to narrow the gap, certainly psychologically we had narrowed the gap in terms of where we thought we were, the feelgood, the financial situation, getting into the Champions League.
“I feel that we not only wasted that but slipped backwards and I couldn’t understand that.
“That is why I was more, let’s say, vociferous in trying to assert some level of influence for there to be changes at board level. I felt that if we didn’t make changes to the leadership of the operating company and the board itself, we would just continue to slide.”
Ex-Rangers chairman believes club are back on track
Dave King’s comments also come after some big changes at Rangers following public protests over how the club was being run.
With Douglas Park stepping down as Chairman and John Bennett coming into replace him, the club have completely revamped their leadership structure.
With Stewart Robertson also leaving to make way for new CEO James Bisgrove, King believes that Rangers are certainly in much better hands.
The former Rangers chairman also reckons that when Douglas Park took the reins, the Ibrox club deviated from the path which had gotten them back to the top of the Scottish game.
“When I stepped down and Douglas came in as chairman, for some reason, and I still don’t know why it happened, there was a departure from the whole ethos and everything we had done to get the club back on track since regime change,” said King.
“That was reversed. All of a sudden, we seemed to be picking fights, for reasons that I could never fathom.
“Why are you picking fights with the media or the SFA? Yes, it is important that Rangers hold their ground when there are issues to be dealt with, but we seemed to be picking a fight with anyone. It made no sense.
“I think we have got a board now under the chairmanship of John and a club under the leadership of James that also understands what it is to be Rangers, that there is a Rangers way of doing things.
“You can have disputes, you can have hard conversations when you need to have them, but it is done privately, it is done internally within the club. We are all there for the same reason.
“That gives me great confidence about what is happening not only on the football field, but that we are getting a more recognisable Rangers in terms of who we are as a club and how we engage with our stakeholders. And there is still no more important stakeholders in a club than your supporters.”
Dave King led the famous Three Bears takeover of Rangers in 2015, wrestling back control of the club and putting it into the hands of wealthy bluenose businessmen.
Serving as the club’s chairman for five years, King will be remembered for playing a crucial role in saving the club and he remains an important figure at Ibrox.
